ASN Bank’s Impact on Biodiversity

7 January 2019

ASN
Bank’s sustainability policy has three pillars: the climate, human
rights and biodiversity. CREM has worked with the bank since 2014 on
the formulation of its biodiversity policy and the development of
long-term goals for this pillar. In 2017, the bank decided to become
‘biodiversity positive’ by 2030. This means that the combined impact
of all of the bank’s investments must be positive by that time. ASN
Bank is the first bank in the world to have set this goal.

Footprint calculation

In
order to assess what is required to reach the goal and progress made
towards it, the bank naturally needs to be able to measure its impact
(its biodiversity footprint). CREM, working with PRé Consultants,
supports the bank in doing so – this year we calculated the
footprint of ASN Bank for the fourth year in a row. We also assessed
how the bank can reduce it further and ultimately make a positive
contribution to biodiversity. For this, CREM, along with PRé and ASN
Bank, has developed a footprint methodology.

This
approach has generated a lot of international interest. At the
beginning of 2018, ASN Bank, ACTIAM (a Dutch asset management
company), CDC Biodiversité (a French financial institute) and
Finance in Motion (a German impact investor) began working together
to come up with widely supported starting points for a footprint
calculation. This collaboration has already led to the publication of
a ‘common ground paper’, including an important contribution by CREM.

Positive
impacts

CREM
and PRé have now started an investigation into ways that investments
with a positive impact on biodiversity can be included in the
footprint calculation. They are not only looking at investments in
nature conservation and restoration, but also at the effect of
investments in better management practices and certification.

A detailed description of ASN Bank’s footprint methodology can be downloaded from ASN’s website and here. The common ground paper about the implementation of a footprint for financial institutions can be downloaded here.